5 Überveillance and the Rise of Last-Mile Implantables: Past, Present, and Future

As the concept of the internet of things (IoT) gathers momentum to become the internet of things and people, many innovators are looking into smart technologies that are not only carried or worn but implanted beneath the skin to form an integral part of end-to-end network architecture. In some ways, the end user is the new “last mile” in the global interconnected network topology, formed since the rise of the IP-based core. Embodied computing technologies, such as implantable technologies in living things, become the final security and privacy frontier in a context where every object and subject is identifiable with an IPv6 unique address. Members of the biohacking community demonstrate how proximity implantables can be used in an organizational context for physical access control, in-building location tracking, and convenience-oriented applications. This chapter provides an historical overview of nonmedical implants and the state of play today, and it ponders applications in the future, as well as the corresponding implications. The narrative provides strong evidence toward the use of such embodied computing technologies as implantables as a means to making end users key nodes in a network. We also examine the repercussions of such technological developments in view of the benefits and risks of überveillance (embedded surveillance), together with the associated societal challenges.